Patent GB-535031-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to optical reading devices
IPC: G06V30/224
Filed: 1939-09-25
Abstract: 535,031. Photo-electric statistical machines, and type-printing telegraph apparatus. DEUTSCHE HOLLERITH-MASCHINEN GES. Sept. 25, 1939, No. 26623. Convention date, Sept. 24, 1938. [Class 40 (iii)] [Also in Group XIX] Relates to devices involving the photoelectric analysis of record cards bearing characters as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and described in Specification 528,849, the lines of such characters producing code marks and lines in a vertical or horizontal line or in both vertical and horizontal lines. According to the invention, the interpreting device includes two sets of devices, the first being responsive to code marks only and the second being prepared for operation by the first set and responsive when code lines are present, as explained below. The cards may be stacked in a magazine of a known sorting machine, Fig. 4, and fed therefrom one at a time to a photo-electric reading device 20, and thence to sorting pockets having blades 15 operated by an electromagnet 16a under control of the electric interpreting circuits fed by the photo-electric device. The photo-electric device 20, Fig. 5, is as described in Specification 533,026 and comprises a lamp 28 associated with lenses 35 for producing a scanning spot of light on the record 10, and a second set of lenses 30 for concentrating light from the scanning spot on to a photo-electric cell 31. This device 20 is mounted by rollers 22 on rods 21 and is adjustable transversely of the record by a worm 23 according to the column of the record to be examined. Electric connection is established to the lamp and the cell by spring plungers riding against contact rails 26, 27. The interpreting circuit, Fig. 6, is similar to that described in Fig. 5 of Specification 533,026, but includes the additional magnets 60 (X) and 60 (Y) serving to interpret code lines when they form part of the character code. As in the previous arrangement, the photo-electrio cell 31 is connected between a tapping on a resistance 41 across the main bus bars 40, 50 and the grid of a valve 46 for which a leak 51 is provided. The cathode of the valve 46 is biased by a tapping on the resistance 41, and its anode is connected to the bus-bar 40 through a relay 47 which maintains contacts 48a open except when a black code mark or line reduces the light on the cell. The contacts 48a are between the bus-bar 40 and a line-selector switch 44 which is set to connect one of the lines 59a ... 59d according to the: line of the record to be examined. These lines are connected to respective segments on a commutator 42 provided with corresponding sets of contacts 1, 2, 3 ; and the segments and contacts are periodically bridged in regular sequence by a brush 43 rotated in synchronism with the scanning movement of the record in the photoelectric device 20, Fig. 5. The contacts 1, 2, 3 correspond to the code marks of the characters numbered from the bottom upwards. If the character in the.line and column being examined has a code mark in any of the three index positions of the code shown in Fig. 1, the contacts 48a close at the time the brush 43 bridges the corresponding contacts and segments, and the corresponding magnets 60 (I), 60 (II), 60 (III) are sequentially operated. When the character has a line mark extending from the first to the second code mark, the contacts 48a remain closed during the corresponding period with the result that the magnet 60 (I) remains energized through contacts 106 closed by an armature 105 when the magnet is first operated. Contacts 107 closed by the same armature therefore also remain closed, so that when the brush 43 closes the circuit of the second magnet 60 (II) it also closes the circuit of an additional magnet 60 (X). Similarly, when a character has a line mark extending from the second to the third code mark, another additional magnet 60 (Y) is operated. The magnets 60 control levers 64 constituting a first set of storing devices which in turn control levers 66 constituting a second set of storing devices controlling a set of digitline selecting switches 70, all as described in Specification 533,026. These switches are connected to a distributor 75 controlling a holding magnet 76 and the sorting magnet 16a. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 describes also (1) two other sets of similar statistical records, one forming a threepoint code and the other a six-point code ; (2) a multiple set of photo-electric devices, Figs. 7 and 8 (Cancelled), (not shown), for reading the several lines of the record simultaneously while the record is moved in the direction of the lines, and in association therewith storing and translating devices including a multiple rotary distributor, Figs. 10 and 11 (Cancelled), (not shown) ; and (3) a telegraph printing apparatus, Fig. 17 (Cancelled), comprising a photo-electric tape-reading device 18 associated with an amplifier 46, a relay 47 and a distributer 122 for transmitting the signals to a line 123, and a decoding and printing device at the receiving end of the line 123, said device including a distributor 125 controlling relays R1 ... R6 which set armatures r1 ... r6 according to the signal code received and a synchronized translator 127 which controls a magnet 129 to press a tape 133 against a type wheel 132. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.